Alaska 13. Road Warriors July 22

We woke to foggy, overcast skies — or is it smoke? Hard to say. I think it’s fog, mostly. Dave always get up early and makes coffee and brings it to me in bed, but today of course he left me to go fish. I thought about it, but there were so many mosquitoes and little green leaf hoppers on the screen that I didn’t even want to get out of bed to pee! So I held it as long as I could and finally faced the bugs. When I got back in the camper I found had the tiny green bugs all over my shins and had to kill several of them minutes later as they came back in the camper with me. That sealed it for me. I was staying in the camper and waiting for my coffee. I didn’t have to wait long. My fisherman emerged victorious after catching 2 more grayling and a HUGE (suspected but unconfirmed) bull trout that broke his line.

We both agreed to skip breakfast and skeedadle rather than while-away any more time and violate the law. Our EIGHT HOURS were EXPIRED!

We drove through a HUGE burn area that we later learned was from 2022. When we have internet (which we still don’t) we plan to read about it. We assumed it was even more recent since it 1) wasn’t detailed in our map book and 2) we smelled smoke. 

We also saw two more black bears and a little fox with something in its mouth.

The junction with the true-blue ALASKA HIGHWAY was even more anti-climactic than the start of the Cassiar Highway. Mostly because Dave didn’t even slow down for me to get a picture.

I have about 3 blurry window shots to validate mile marks I have been looking forward to for a year now! 

WhatEVER! We drive. We don’t fart around taking tourist shots!

We stopped a mile after turning onto the Alaska Highway for some gas, two lattes at the cafe and a snack for Jennie (banana bread), while Dave rummaged through the fridge (it’s still ON!!) and got his bread and an apple. We learned from the guy at the cafe that there is an active fire in Watson Lake just a few miles to the east — a bigger city that looks fun if “The Milepost” is to believed. Which it is not. So that explains the smoke we were seeing yesterday and could smell today.

He’s got the bug to fish now, so much river-ogling is happening as I write this, though no stops have yet occurred. 

The triscuts and Easy Cheese are out though — presumably because he didn’t get his cheese or cheerios. We are happy to be getting our recommended daily amount of calcium… (See instagram for context)

There are lots of bikers on the AlCan (The Alaska/Canada highway). My hats off to their fortitude, however I cannot think of a more death defying activity. The shoulder is awful, the grades are relentless, it’s often smoky and the bugs are horrendous. I think all of them are camping — which means backpacking-type camping. Do I need to go on? Charlie — Are you reading this? Please give up road biking. I think you are safer rock climbing.

We stopped to fish at a small creek named Smart Creek — but is actually meant to be named Smarch Creek, after the guy who lived here. But over time people misunderstood it and the Yukon government — just like me choosing Butt Naked over Buck — rolled over to popular opinion. 

There were some rises and we got some takes. We had a guy drive down to talk to us, which was kind of scary because we realized we didn’t actually have Yukon fishing licenses. Oops. Didn’t even think of it…. And a biker(!) came down to eat his lunch. All of which was pretty nuts, given there is very little traffic on this road in the first place, much less it being a VERY low value pull off compared to all the others we flew by at 70 mph. 

Friendly Dave got to talking to the biker and learned he is biking the Pan-American highway. TWENTY THOUSAND MILES LONG. He said it will take him 1.5 years. He started at Prudhoe Bay at the top of Alaska and I think he said he was on day …. We don’t know. We are both getting him mixed up with the group of riders from UT Austin riding all the way from Austin to Anchorage! And we do remember that THEY are on day 59. Again: crazy!. So whatever. He’s gone a long way already. And three days ago a bear charged him in his camp. Scary Scary Scary. We pray for his safety — and ALL the bikers out there!

The third day of no internet had me finally pulling my giant tote bag from the back seat holding my giant crochet project that Dave had talked me into bringing along. If you are paying close attention, you will see a theme here. Jennie trying to NOT bring things along and Dave trying TO bring things along. 

For MONTHS before the trip, as we talked about logistics and what needed to be packed and how to do it, Jennie said, “We don’t need/can’t bring that.” Dave said, “Why not? We’ve got the room.” Jennie said, “No we don’t! We are going to be packed to the gills!” (Voice rising with impatience) Dave said, “I don’t know what you are talking about. We’ve got a TON of room. I’m bringing ______ (fill in the blank).” Jennie said, “We’ll just see about that. When we actually start packing you are going to be surprised.” Dave said, “I’ll bet you.” And Jennie said, “I totally bet you.”

You are probably wondering who won this one. 

Dave won this one. He always wins. Whether or not it’s an actual WIN is up for debate though, because every day that he has to shuffle bins around to get what he needs to get, insisting it isn’t any trouble at all… But then he’ll swear in frustration while driving because he can’t push the “map crate” (an actual milk crate brought along to hold the maps) far enough back to plug in his rechargeable EMBER COFFEE CUP.  

So anyway, yeah, I’ve got the crochet project. It’s literally a blanket. Specifically a “Temperature Blanket.” The idea is you crochet one row each day, the color of which denotes the recorded high temperature of the day. Each color represents a 10 degree temperature span. I’m recording the temps in Eagle. The REALITY, of course, is that I don’t do it every day. I CAN’T pack this in my carry on. When I picked it up today, I was on March 27th. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. 

(I will confess, in full-disclosure, that I brought along the fancy electric milk frother for my coffee in the morning. –But that’s a necessity.

We started picking up a cell signal a few miles outside of Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. MAD texting and emailing ensued. We learned Biden pulled out of the race. I got to read some fun messages from friends. I learned Pam is shirking her duties in picking the garden. SHAME ON HER! (But much gratitude for digging the garlic.)

I frantically grabbed my laptop to get the next two posts queued up because I DO NOT want to get a mocking text from my brother! Road Warrioring is hard work! 

We grabbed some groceries in Whitehorse and drove about 30 miles beyond to the Tahkini River Campground, 9 miles down a gravel road that was a muddy mess from a recent rain. What a couple of pansies we are, driving like 10 mph because we don’t want to get the camper dirty. Though I will say, we’ve had some nightmare scenarios getting crap off the camper. Rain soaked dust-control treated dirt is AWFUL. We’ve had tar from resurfacing that took us HOURS… so, maybe cut us some slack on this one. My guess is that it’s just the beginning of mud, from everything I’m hearing about Alaska weather. 

We are also pretty big babies about the mosquitoes. Again… something tells me we need to get over this REAL quick.

The campground was nice. And it was a super nice surprise to learn we could have fires in the Yukon. Yay! I made some crazy turkey burgers out of the remaining ground turkey. I’ve never made turkey burgers before, so I just guessed at what to put in them and they were pretty good. Dave ranked them “right up there.”

We headed down to the river (another HUGE one) and fished a little back-eddy to some rising fish. Dave proceeded to catch like his 13th, 14th and 15th fish of the trip while I caught…

Not one. 

I had graylings doing literal CARTWHEELS over my hopper. They tenaciously grabbed on to the white floof on the top and tried their best to imitate the alligator death roll, pulling it down, promisingly. But none could conquer the #6 hook in their tiny mouths and, alas, let it go. It was fun to have so much action. It was not so fun to not catch any. It was a relief to not have to unhook one after Dave told me how stinky they were. They must be really stinky for Dave to keep going on about it. Now I find that I don’t WANT to catch a grayling!

A German guy that we had talked to earlier came down with his waders and fished below us. I could hear him false casting 10-20 times on each cast. I am not kidding. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s whipping your rod and line back and forth in the air before letting your fly land. It’s what you picture when you think of fly fishing. In reality, you really should do as few as possible because — or so I’m told — it spooks the fish. And it’s not necessary. Was he trying to dry his fly out so it would float?  I have no idea. Very interesting. Might have to google.

Dave was trying to wait for it to get dark so he could take a shower but it never did. It never got dark. So he took a shower in broad daylight. I was spotting for him, but there was no one around. I plan to take a shower in the morning because I didn’t want to have to wait for my hair to dry.

I read until 11:40 and it was only just getting dark. Only JUST! I googled it as soon as I had a signal and sunSET was at 11:10 pm!! Crazy!

*Author’s note: In the frantic pace to get these posted during short stints of connectivity, proofing is not happening at all. Apologies for typos. Editor is also getting testy at not having full control of content. Author admits to perhaps a bit too much creative license and knows that the reader is fully aware who the liability is in this operation. Hint: it’s not the editor. Author believes the reader is SMART ENOUGH to know this. After all, where would the author be without the Editor’s generator? The Author is testy at having to have this disclaimer inserted for fear it removes some of the hilarity, however the author is also 59 years old and experienced enough to know that not everyone gets her humor.

^ Just a little window into this Author’s Alaskan life…